The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade on Thursday advanced 18 bills seeking to protect children and teens online, including the Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA 2.0.
The proposals approved during the markup session now go to the full House Energy and Commerce Committee and, if approved there, to the House floor.
Despite the subcommittee passing all 18 bills, Democratic subcommittee members expressed concern over a preemption clause — especially as included in KOSA and COPPA 2.0 — that could wipe out state laws with stronger online protections for minors than the current federal proposals.
If enacted, KOSA would require certain online platforms to implement the most protective safeguards by default when a user is known to be a minor. These platforms would also have to provide tools to help parents manage their children’s use of these products.
Covered platforms would be prohibited from advertising illegal products to minors. The tech companies that own them would also be required to submit an audited report to the Federal Trade Commission on minors’ use of their platforms, available safeguards, parental tools and data collection practices.
COPPA 2.0, meanwhile, would amend the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 to strengthen protections involving the online collection, use and disclosure of minors’ personal information. The bill, enforced by the FTC, would also ban targeted advertising to children and teens.
The advancement of the 18 bills comes after the subcommittee held a hearing last week on the proposals and the overall urgency of addressing the lack of protections for children and teens on social media. Some lawmakers also expressed a similar pause about the preemption clauses in several of the bills during that hearing.
Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said during Thursday’s markup that KOSA’s preemption standard is “unconscionable” and that without a “duty of care” provision, the bill would be unenforceable against big tech companies.
Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., said in his opening statement Thursday that his bill, KOSA, is a “strong proposal with concrete safeguards and obligations for companies.” He added that the 18 total bills work together “to create the safest possible environment for children.”
Ahead of the Thursday markup, the Center for Democracy & Technology sent a letter to the House subcommittee’s leadership flagging concerns about the bills, including the state preemption clauses.
“Children should not wind up with fewer protections after Congress acts. We urge the Committee not to preempt state laws related to children other than where there is an actual conflict between federal and state law,” the CDT letter said.
The letter also called attention to several bills under subcommittee consideration — like Sammy’s Law, the Safe Messaging for Kids Act and the App Store Accountability Act — that would create new and overbroad access to children’s data, CDT said. For instance, Sammy’s Law would require large social media platforms to create, maintain and make data available to third-party software providers with a parent’s permission and thus allow them to use the third-party service to manage their child’s online interactions and content settings.
That bill, CDT said, "threatens to do more harm than good by exposing children’s sensitive data to third-party actors with insufficient privacy safeguards and enabling extensive 24/7 monitoring of children’s private online activity.”
The other 16 bills approved by the subcommittee include:
- H.R. 6290, Safe Social Media Act
- H.R. 6259, No Fentanyl on Social Media Act
- H.R. 6289, Promoting a Safe Internet for Minors Act
- H.R. 6437, Kids Internet Safety Partnership Act
- H.R. 5360, AI Warnings And Resources for Education (AWARE) Act
- H. R. 6499, Assessing Safety Tools for Parents and Minors Act
- H. R. 2657, Sammy’s Law
- H. R. 6265, Safer Guarding of Adolescents from Malicious Interactions on Network Games (GAMING) Act
- H.R. 6273, Stop Profiling Youth and (SPY) Kids Act
- H.R. 6253, Algorithmic Choice and Transparency Act
- H.R. 6489, Safeguarding Adolescents From Exploitative (SAFE) Bots Act
- H.R. 1623, Shielding Children's Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net (SCREEN) Act
- H.R. 6257, Safe Messaging for Kids Act of 2025
- H.R. 3149, App Store Accountability Act
- H.R. 6333, Parents Over Platforms Act
- H.R. 6292, Don’t Sell Kids’ Data Act of 2025
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